Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-06-11

running fountains. There are two foun-
tains in it now. In one the water is
never turned on. In the other the water
was never turned on. The latter cost
\ the city during the Tweed ring some
thing like $150,000, and is as dry and
barren to-day as 1t was when the stone
was first hauled here from the granite
quarry. There are some beautiful trees
in the park and few insufficient benches,
but 1t is not place for popular resort,
and hasn't single convenience or COM
fort or aid to refreshment, save here and
there a halfway drinking fountain for
people who are willing to run the risk of
lip disease by drinking from cups which
are never clean and are generally nasty.
On we go uptown along the sun baked
pavements of this glaring city looking in
vain for tree or shrub or restful spot,
until we reach Union Square. Sixty
years ago my maternal uncle lived away
out of town in the summer and had his
country residence at the head of the place
now known as Union Square. 1t is one
of the most enjoyable places in and
about this city. Thousands of people
use it every day, resting upon its shady
benches, availing themselves of its physi-
cal conveniences of every sort and kind,
NAo'uipSu az Ohly ny lllt tNCTy-
corner-searching glare of the electric
light. Union Square has a number of
very beautiful trees, and one or two beds
of Towering shrubs. There is some pre-
tense of care about it, and its fountain is
suggestive of GOODNESS and refreshment
to the poor tramps, the school children,
the flirting policeman and the coy cham
bermaids who make it their place of daily
resort. There, too, we begin to find evil
dences of civilization in the guise of
statues.
There is nothing, you will remember, on
the Battery in the bronze, iron or stone
line except the stone barge-hOuse and the
iron pillars of the elevated railroad.
Neither is there anything in the City
Hall Park graceful or suggestive of at
or science in any department. Some
years ago a foolhardy fellow set up a
freestone statue of Washington in the
City Hall Park; but, when ornamented
by spit-balls in its eyes and the greater
portion of its nose knocked off, it became
such an unmitigated guy that our city
fathers sagely concluded to relegate it to
congenial stone yard. In and about
Union Square are the equestrian statue
OF Washington, statue of Lafayette,
and the mammoth Disagreement statue
OF ADranam Lincoln.
Come along. We have plenty of places
yet to visit. Never mind hoisting your
umbrella. 1t won't shield you from the
pitiless rays of the sun, for there is no
shade of any sort or kind There is not
tree from Union Square all the way
up the broad sidewalks shining and
shimmering and glistening in the broad
sweltering of this boiling sun.
Hero wa ORC of Madison Cnroro h., To-.
beautiful, at night a scene of picturesqe-
ness unequaled in this city Its paths
are multitudinous, broad and charmingly
shaded by widespreading trees of sturdy
growth. There are many benches there.
Children play there by thousands; nurses
guard them by hundreds and, although
the unkempt tramp and the SHINY dis
guised loafer are now and then to be de-
tected here and there, the park police are
gallant enough to protect the servant
girls, and the little children know whom
to run to in time of alarm. At the lower
end is most ridiculous effigy of William
III. Seward sitting in modern garb in
most comfortable position. Admiral
Farragut is represented as preaching
from pulpit'or directing the manpuvres
of fleet from the bow of vessel,
according to the Imagination or infor-
nation of the spectator.
Twenty or thirty years ago a monu-
ment was erected to General Worth, of
Mexican war notoriety, and, under the
impression that it was put so far uptown
that nobody would ever see it, there was
but little opposition to it's erection at the
upper end of Madison Square. Here,
too, for year or more, was placed the
mammoth hand of the extraordinary gift
from France to America, the statue of
Liberty, for which the pedestal was long
since provided.
Elegant drinking fountains have been
sent here, gifts of private beneficence and,
in fact, Madison Square by reason of it's
inherent beauty, its superb rows of trees
and it's surroundings, may be considered
one of our most delightful and enjoyable
breathing places. At night when the
electric light falls full upon the marble
fronts of the Fifth-avenue Hotel, the
Albemarle and the Hoffman House, and
upon the facades of elegant residences
on Twenty-third street and Madison
avenue and Twenty-siXth streets, the ro-
nance and weirdness of the picture are
singularly suggestive and worthy the pen
or pencil of the choicest artist.
l need not tell you about Central Park,
save to call attention to a development
made notable during the past few years,
viz, the erection of costly and magnifi-
cent fiat houses on every available lot of
ground within an eighth of mile of the
park itself. The park is in it's glory now,
and its beauties and comforts are en-
joyed every day in all this season by
many scores of thousands of people.
Beyond the park is variety of de-
lightful resorts, chief of which is High
go from eight to ten thousand people,
while on Sundays the police report from
twenty to forty thousand men, women
and children as regularly as the sunshine
permits trip up the river or ride upon
the elevated road. \ HOWARD.
A Sheet-iron Pool With S5O,OOO,O 900.